CHRISTIAN crusaders against Sunday trading are set to move their national HQ to Leominster.

But the 170-year-old Lord's Day Observance Society insist townspeople have nothing to fear.

"We are not a sect," said the society's general secretary John Roberts. "People have no need to fear us.

"We are not crackpots and we are not killjoys. We are people who enjoy life to the full."

He said, for his own part, he was a cricket fan who liked to take time out from work to go and watch matches.

The society plans to set up its UK headquarters and books warehouse in the former Brightwells antiques auction room at Ryelands Road.

If council planners approve a change of use on the building a staff of 12 people, some of whom are being recruited locally, will run the centre.

Yorkshire-born Mr Roberts, who has run the society from various locations - its former headquarters were at Epsom in Surrey - has moved into temporary accommodation and has joined Leominster Baptist Church.

The LDOS is inter-denominational and supplies publications to Baptist, Methodist, Anglican and other churches. There are subsidiary offices at Edinburgh and Belfast and Leominster was seen as an ideal place for a main distribution centre.

From its new base, the society was aiming to further develop its "fast-growing" Day One publishing wing and to boost its work of taking the Christian message to people in prison, said John Roberts.

He does not believe the society's original aim of keeping Sunday 'special' is a lost cause.

"Most businesses in Leominster are closed on Sunday as they are in many other towns. If every day were busy life would be boring. Sunday is still a day when families want to be together," he said.